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Friday, 17 July 2009

Who Do You Think You Are - overnights

The new series of Who Do You Think You Are? made a strong debut for BBC One last night, according to early viewing figures.

The opening episode, which delved into Davina McCall's family history, was seen by 6.43m (26.6%), making it the most-watched programme during the 9pm hour.

Its nearest rival, the return of BBC Two's Dragon's Den, managed 2.8m (12.5%). The series seven opener, featuring Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden, was down on last series' average of 3.44m (14.4%).

As for the programme itself, I must admit I always get bored with the ideas of celebrities wanting to prove a connection to royalty, I just don't get the attraction, and it only occasionally proves to actually be the case (Boris Johnston, Matthew Pinsent etc). But when Davina got that out of the way and into the true story of her Windsor connection, it was quite a heartbreaker really, and proves the point that you may not always find what you wish for in your family history research. However, when they took the show to France, the programme set a new high bar for the programme. It's not often that I want to have someone else's ancestor in my tree! A great opener. If anything, it was perhaps marred only by the fact that family history research seems to no longer be the priority, just biographies of interesting ancestors linked to a famous celebrity. Still, definitely one for the all time top ten!For those who missed the show, you can see it again at the BBC iPlayer for a week after tx.Chris